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Tea + CopperThu, 21 Jun 2018 17:53:44 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.9https://www.teaandcopper.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-stampcolour-32x32.png#feedyourselfhttps://www.teaandcopper.com
3232Weight Loss Affirmations That Actually Workhttps://www.teaandcopper.com/2018/06/06/weight-loss-affirmations-that-actually-work/
https://www.teaandcopper.com/2018/06/06/weight-loss-affirmations-that-actually-work/#respondWed, 06 Jun 2018 00:33:12 +0000https://www.teaandcopper.com/?p=405I talk a lot on this blog about the food that helped me to go from almost 200 lbs last year to 139 lbs now – a size 16 to a size 4/6 – but there is one other component of my weight loss that doesn’t get as much attention as it should.

Affirmations.

On my journey, I used a lot of affirmations and mindset shifts. Every time I would stall, rather than focusing on changing my external environment (eating, stress, exercise, sleep, etc. – which are important, but not the only aspect of reaching your healthy weight!) I would focus on changing my mindset around my weight loss.

Without a doubt, affirmations are the NUMBER ONE thing that helped me to go from overweight and unhappy to healthy and confident! I highly encourage you to go through the list below and pick out 2-3 that really resonate with you.

Here are a list of the top 50 affirmations that helped me to lose 60 lbs:

It is okay for me to lose weight.

It is okay for me to get attention for losing weight.

I love my healthy body.

Every day I am moving closer to my healthy weight.

I believe in my ability to lose this weight.

I am getting smaller every day.

I am amazed at how much weight I’ve lost already.

I feel strong, confident, and beautiful in my body NOW.

I eat healthy food because it helps me to feel strong.

I make healthy choices because I am a healthy person.

I release the guilt I’ve held around my food choices.

I forgive myself for my past unhealthy choices, and move forward into loving the person I am.

I love myself.

I love my body.

My body is strong and beautiful.

Every day I grow stronger.

Taking care of my body is important.

I am grateful for my body.

I am grateful for my healthy food.

I am grateful for the ability to move my body, in any way I can today.

I accept what I am able to do today to move toward a healthier lifestyle.

“Don’t we have to avoid exercise with PCOS, because exercise raises our cortisol levels?”

This is *such* an important question, and there are so many variables involved, that I wanted to address it right here for you. In short, YES there are exercises to avoid with PCOS because of this increase in cortisol – and there are ways we can actually work with this to improve our results.

Let me explain.

According to Precision Nutrition, “secretion of cortisol is elicited at exercise intensities between 80% and 90% of VO2 max.” << That’s very intense exercise. We’re talking HIIT, spin classes, sprinting, CrossFit, etc. Fast workouts with short breaks. The more intense the workout, and the shorter the break, the higher the cortisol response.

This also includes aerobic endurance training – high level, intense endurance training, like training for a marathon at 80-90% of your maximum ability. Endurance trained individuals, like elite marathon runners, have an elevated cortisol response. As you may have already guessed, this can be disasterous with PCOS.

You might think that the answer is simply to skip cardio and go for strength training, right?

But interestingly, cortisol isn’t the only hormone we need to worry about with PCOS. Resistance trained individuals (weight lifters, Olympic lifters, strength trainers, etc. – people who lift heavy things) have a higher testosterone response!

Wait, what?

Yes, you read that right. Us androgen-dominant PCOS women could be inadvertently adding MORE testosterone to our already testosterone-overriden bodies with excessive strength training.

So what is a woman with PCOS to do?

1. Balance. No excessive cardio, no excessive strength training. Endurance training is great (like running!) as long as you stay below your 80-90% of VO2 max, maybe even below 60%. If you’re breathing heavy, you’re going too hard. Don’t lift more than 80% of your max on most days, and take longer breaks during exercise. Yoga is a fantastic exercise for women with PCOS as it is typically lower in intensity and requires only bodyweight to build strength, keeping cortisol levels low without increasing testosterone.

2. Walk. Walk, walk, walk, walk. Hike on the weekends. Jog at a low intensity. Then walk some more. Walking gets a bad rep as an inefficient exercise because it doesn’t burn many calories and the body adapts to it quickly. But here’s a secret: the adaptation that makes your body burn fewer calories over time when walking is an improved sensitivity to insulin! Insulin is believed to be a part of the root cause of most PCOS symptoms, even in women without diagnosed insulin resistance. Improving your sensitivity reduces your free insulin, reducing your testosterone, thereby improving your symptoms. So – WALK!

3. Sleep, workout, eat, repeat. In that order. Making sure you get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep each night (women need more sleep than men, and reproducing women need *even more than that*) helps reduce cortisol levels. Working out in the morning actually results in a smaller increase in cortisol AND diminishes the impact of that increase from your workout, no matter what you do for exercise. Consuming protein after a workout also reduces the cortisol response. Those 3 things in combination can help offset the negative impacts of cortisol on your PCOS.

]]>https://www.teaandcopper.com/2018/03/27/best-exercises-for-women-with-pcos-without-increasing-cortisol-and-making-everything-worse/feed/0How to Start a Healthy Lifestylehttps://www.teaandcopper.com/2018/01/24/how-to-start-a-healthy-lifestyle/
https://www.teaandcopper.com/2018/01/24/how-to-start-a-healthy-lifestyle/#respondWed, 24 Jan 2018 21:45:04 +0000https://www.teaandcopper.com/?p=262So you want to start a healthy lifestyle. Maybe your doctor told you to make a change, or your health has deteriorated and given you a wake up call. Maybe you don’t like what you see in the mirror any more (even though you’re beautiful!) or you’ve seen someone else suffering from poor health and don’t want to resign yourself to the same fate.

No matter what your reason is for coming here, I’m proud of you! Committing to making a change is the first step to realizing your goals and improving your health.

But you may be wondering, what exactly is the next step? In this post, we’ll discuss what a healthy lifestyle actually is, how to figure out your unique motivations (to help you stick to your plan), and a few easy, actionable steps for you to take. Let’s get started!

What is a healthy lifestyle?

To put it simply, a healthy lifestyle is a set of choices, habits, thought patterns, behaviours, and ways of being that support your mental, emotional, and physical well being.

Mental

A healthy lifestyle will support your mental health by limiting the “mental load” of what you’re doing – otherwise known as “how much you have to think about it.” The mental energy you have to spend planning, shopping, preparing, and tracking your habits and choices, the easier it will be to stick to them when the rest of your life needs attention.

Emotional

A healthy lifestyle will support your emotional health by supporting positive ways of thinking around food, your body, your environment, and your habits. Considering a spectrum of healthiness and allowing yourself to operate on that spectrum supports your emotional well being by supporting your right to choose what feels best for you at that time. Using a spectrum of healthiness also supports your right to choose to modify your plan (without guilt or negative self-talk) during social situations where more restrictive lifestyle choices could impact your enjoyment and connection with the people who matter to you most.

Physical

A healthy lifestyle will bring you to a healthy body weight and support you in maintaining it long term. By reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight, you’ll reduce or eliminate the weight-related symptoms of your diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, or PCOS. In some cases, bringing blood glucose levels under control through dietary choices like a ketogenic diet, under the supervision and recommendation of your physician, can even eliminate symptoms all together.

What makes a lifestyle unhealthy?

So if that is what makes a lifestyle healthy, what makes a lifestyle unhealthy? Simply, an unhealthy lifestyle is anything that doesn’t support your mental, emotional, or physical well being.

Mental

Overly-restrictive diets, exercise programs that don’t fit your schedule, and any other choices with a high “mental load” that require lots of planning, thinking, and attention would be considered mentally unhealthy. If it takes away from your ability to perform in other areas of your life because you’re constantly having to think about or plan your next meal or your next trip to the gym, eventually you will burn out and return to your old “easier” ways.

Emotional

Black-and-white thinking is the number one culprit here. Nutrition and health really is a spectrum. You don’t wake up one morning suddenly with diabetes from eating a single snack cake, and you’re not going to reverse it faster if you only eat celery with vegan mayo that has been blessed by an obscure voodoo cult leader. Focusing on the morality of food (does eating this make me a good person?) rather than the value of food (will eating this support my health?) has a negative impact on your emotional well-being because when you do eat something “less than perfect”, you take on the negative qualities associated with that food. You become a “bad person”. Many people then choose to punish themselves with even more restrictive choices. Obsession with only doing what is BEST rather than what is BETTER causes unhealthy levels of restriction, and eventually (as above) you’ll burn out and slip back into what is easy. At its most extreme, these behaviours can manifest as orthorexia.

Physical

Any way of eating that causes physiological damage falls into this category. The standard American diet (SAD) of processed, industrial food products; a high-carb, low fat diet; or any diets high in foods with known issues for you personally (like eating dairy, grains, shellfish, or peanut butter when you know you’re allergic!) are all examples of ways of eating that physically harm you, both immediately and over the long term.

What can a healthy lifestyle do for me?

A healthy lifestyle can support your ongoing health and wellness, and even in some cases prevent future health issues. Lifestyle choices are strongly linked with things like type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, heart attack, stroke, and certain cancers. Some lifestyle choices have what’s called “neuroprotective effects”, which may help reduce your chances of things like Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease as you age.

Making healthier choices, habits, and behaviours a regular part of your life can help you to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, which reduces the chance of your weight negatively impacting your health in the future. For some people, achieving a healthy body weight can also improve their confidence by allowing them to more fully participate in physical activities that bring them joy and social connection.

In your case, your doctor may have recommended reducing your body weight to help control your symptoms. A healthy lifestyle could have lasting impacts on your overall health and reduce your symptoms, giving you a better quality of life and potentially even prolonging it!

What does a healthy lifestyle mean to me?

Beyond just the general benefits (which I’m sure you’ve already thought about), it is important for you to understand your personal motivations for a healthier lifestyle. If you’re just doing it because the doctor said so, or because someone on TV said it might help, or to conform to some archaic standard of beauty set out in a magazine, you’re destined to give it up the first time something even mildly more interesting appears.

You have to have a REAL reason for making the change to a healthy lifestyle for it to be sustainable in any way.

The best way I’ve found to figure this out is to ask yourself three questions:

What do you REALLY want? Go beyond “to lose weight” or “to feel better”. Really dig deep and find something that hits on your emotions. “To stop being in pain every day” or “to finally have a baby” or “to be around for my daughter’s graduation” are much more meaningful.

What is stopping you from having that? Look at your obstacles. Be honest with yourself. Is it time? Money? Motivation? Knowledge? Support? A combination of the above? What is holding you back from getting the end result you’re really after?

What would happen if those obstacles magically disappeared – who would you be? Visualize it. Look at your life without those obstacles, and really feel it. Feel yourself without pain, or holding that baby, or watching your daughter graduate. Feel the way your body moves, the way it supports you in the life you want, the way it has healed.

Those feelings – the way your life would be if your obstacles disappeared and you achieved your goal – are your real motivators. Those feelings are the things that will keep you moving toward your goals when your usual triggers for unhealthy habits (time, stress, social triggers, etc.) crop up.

How do I get started?

So, now that you know what a healthy lifestyle looks like and what it means to you, how do you get started? Well, you build your own plan! Don’t worry, it isn’t as complex as it sounds.

Start by choosing one habit you currently have that you know isn’t supporting your health. This could be your choice of breakfast, your snacks at work, or the amount of time you spend sitting each day. Pick just one thing that you know isn’t moving you toward what you really want.

Now change it slightly. If you normally reach for the daily box of donuts at the office, bring your own healthier option from home – as long as it is still something you enjoy. If you normally add 3 sugars to your coffee, try 2. If you typically sit for 8 hours a day, try making an extra effort to walk 5 minutes – just 5 minutes – at some point when you have a natural break.

No, this won’t help you shed 20 lbs in 20 days, or get shredded abs in a month, or whatever other crazy claim the fad diets are making these days. But making changes to habits in this way is the most sustainable way to create permanent, lasting change – which is what you really want, isn’t it? You don’t want to lose 20 lbs in 20 days, you want to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life!

You can choose to do this alone, but most people find it easier to stick to with a little support from others going through the same thing – and maybe even an expert to help them along the way.

Get some support – for free!

Join NOURISH, our free online Facebook community for people with metabolic dysfunction to get support for their healthier lifestyle. Not only will you find a growing group of peers to support you, but we host a new 5 day challenge every week related to healthy lifestyle and habit change – with prizes for sticking to your goals! It’s a great, free, fun community, and we’d love to have you join us. Click here to request membership.

Is there anything more delicious than a good stock? Rich, meaty flavours that can soak into almost anything, or stand up on their own as the base for a soup. I love stock!

Now, more recently, stock has been “dressed up” by health-fad-diet-people – it is apparently now called “bone broth”. Whatever you want to call it, it is insanely easy to make. 3 steps, and you’ve got your own home made stock/bone broth for using in soups, stews, gravies, cooking liquid, or even just as a nice warm cup of something to take the chill off a cold winter’s night.

You’ll need a roasting pan, a slow cooker, and something to strain (I use a teapot with an infuser in the top!)

So, you ready?

Here’s how you do it!

Step One: Roast the bones. Of course, the higher the quality your ingredients, the higher quality your end product – but don’t despair if all you have access to is the $4 bag of soup bones from the grocery store. Just drop them into a roasting pan (I do mine straight from the freezer – so much easier!) Beef bones, pork bones, turkey or chicken bones… Whatever you’ve got! Roast them at a temperature that feels right until your whole kitchen smells like meaty goodness.

Step Two: Put the bones in the slow cooker. Add in any liquid or drippings, too. Salt and pepper if you like (I do!) and add water to cover the bones. Set it on Low, and leave it there for 24 hours.

Step Three: Strain the broth into a storage container, making sure to make an epic disaster when your husband bumps your shoulder while you’re trying to use the ladle to transfer the stock to your strainer, then put it in the fridge. It’ll gel (it is supposed to – it liquefies when you heat it), and there will be a nice layer of fat on top (which is GREAT for cooking, by the way.)

From here, use it straight out of the fridge within 3-5 days, or drop portions into the freezer to pull out over the next 6 months. Voila!

What do you think?

Are you going to try making stock/bone broth? What are you going to do in the next 7 days to reach closer to your health goals, now that you know the simple cooking method behind this mysterious and seemingly complicated dish? Tell us in the comments so we can support you!

Have you been trying to eat healthier? You might have been taking a closer look at nutrition labels lately. Nutrition labels can seem like a crazy, daunting world of math, macronutrients and micronutrients. Protein, carbohydrates and fat are simpler – polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, dietary fiber and sugar alcohols, and riboflavin are all a little bit different – and a little bit beyond what most people really look at.

In reality, most people only look at calories. That’s a great start, but what about the front of the box? Can that give you some clues without having to decipher the insanity of nutrition labels?

Let’s look at some common product labels to see.

What are some of the most common marketing messages on packages in grocery stores today? “Low Fat”, “High Protein”, “Gluten Free”, “Peanut Free”, and “No Added Sugar”. A little less common, you have the “No Artificial Flavours or Colours”, “Dairy Free”, and “All Natural Ingredients”. You probably recognize some of these labels from foods in your own cupboards, and from your last trip to the store.

What do these labels really mean?

Are these things actually any healthier? Let’s break these down one at a time:

Low Fat – It means that the food in the box is lower in fat than other, similar boxed foods. It does not mean it is “low” compared to, say, an apple – just that it is lower than other similar foods. Also, fat is not the enemy, you just have to learn how to choose healthy fats. Not to mention that when they remove the fat from the cookie, they replace it with sugar and emulsifiers to make sure you still like the cookie.

High Protein – What is the protein source? Protein powder, soy protein, whey protein isolate? On the market today, there are a few “high protein” breads – commercial breads. They claim to use pulses (beans and lentils) to boost the protein content of the bread. But if you look at that sneaky ingredient list again, you’ll see that in addition to pea protein powder (pulse-based) they contain whey protein, soy protein, 6 different forms of sugar, and a series of unpronounceable preservatives, dough softeners, and flavour additives. More protein! But more sugar and industrial food additives, too.

Gluten Free – Do you have celiac disease? Non-celiac gluten sensitivity as diagnosed by your doctor? If not, you most likely don’t need to worry about gluten. If your doctor or nutritionist haven’t given you specific recommendations to avoid gluten, you may want to avoid gluten-free foods. Often, gluten-free foods contain high levels of sugar and industrial food additives to recreate the texture and flavour of the original gluten-containing product. Also, taking gluten out of store-bought fudge brownies doesn’t make them healthy – they’re still brownies. Don’t be fooled by food marketers on this one.

Peanut Free – This is actually a useful, valuable label for those of us with children in peanut-free schools and classrooms due to allergies. Moving on.

No Added Sugar – They didn’t add sugar. Maybe because there was plenty of sugar in there already? Let’s take one example – “No Sugar Added Strawberry Jam”. Big national brand. When looking closely at the jar, you’ll notice that they didn’t add any sugar – none at all! Strawberries do contain some sugar, which helps, but… Oh, what’s that? Sucralose! They didn’t add sugar, they added Splenda. “No Added Sugar” doesn’t mean no added sweeteners, nor does it mean lower in sugars or carbohydrates. It just means they didn’t add *sugar*.

No Artificial Flavours or Colours – Valid thing to know. Likely only appearing on products that are highly processed in the first place, so limit intake, but products without artificial flavours or colours are better than products with them.

Dairy Free – If you have a dairy sensitivity, this is important to know. If you don’t, then stick to the straight-up dairy versions to avoid emulsifiers, thickening agents, and more.

All Natural Ingredients – This is literal marketing gibberish. It literally means nothing. There is no official meaning of “all natural ingredients”. In the United States, the FDA considers “natural” to mean the food does not contain added colors, artificial flavors or synthetic substances – but note that artificial ingredients and synthetic ingredients aren’t the same thing. You can have an artificial ingredient filled cupcake spread with highly processed, artificially thickened and stabilized icing coloured with chemically-extracted beet juice – it’s natural! It isn’t healthy.

So, what’s “the truth”?

The truth is, these are all (with a couple of exceptions) marketing terms. They’re used to make you think a food is healthier, and thus buy more of it. They don’t actually mean a thing for your health in most cases. But that doesn’t make these foods all universally bad.

Natural peanut butter is labeled high in protein, too. There are some amazing fruit and honey only sorbets that are dairy free. And beef jerky is still gluten free last time I checked (and delicious, I can confirm.) Products with these labels aren’t “good” or “bad”. They’re just products, and the words are just marketing. If you want to know what’s really in one of those packages…

Look at the ingredients.

How many ingredients are there? Nothing unexpected? Can you pronounce most of them? Could your grandma? Can you picture most of them in their natural state, at the farmers market? Would you have it on your shelf at home?

If you can answer “yes” to most of those questions, likely you’ve got nothing to worry about. Pick it up, take it home, and enjoy what is in all likelihood a minimally processed food – within reason, and in alignment with your nutrition goals.

If the answer to those questions is no, ask yourself – are you willing to sacrifice your nutrition goals to eat that food? Can you handle the potential negative impact? Will you be able to stay within your energy requirements and not over-indulge if you bring that home? Would you let your kids eat it?

Remember, there are no “good” or “bad” foods.

Just better or worse. If you were eating fruity whirls for breakfast yesterday, go for a whole grain cheerio today. You might never start your day with low-fat greek yogurt bowl with chia seeds, organic blueberries, and honey – and that’s okay. Not everybody has to eat an instagram worthy meal every day. Don’t try to eat perfectly just try to eat better!

What do you think?

Do marketing labels on foods impact your purchasing decisions? Are you going to buy things differently in the future now that you’ve seen this breakdown? What are you going to change, for the next 7 days, as a result of learning more about food labels? Share in the comments and we’ll support you!